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London’s Muslims feel public hostility
FT.COM ^ | July 22. 2005 | Lina Saigol

Posted on 07/24/2005 5:29:23 PM PDT by Cougar66

Muslim youths walked with a determined stride to London's East End Mosque to say their prayers on Friday, just hours after armed police surrounded the building after a bomb threat. Wearing the traditional shalwaar kameez, their heads crowned with the white prayer caps of Islam, swathes of young second-generation Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh made their way to the mosque on Whitechapel Road, one of the oldest and busiest in London.

The moment was particularly poignant as Friday is the most important day for Muslims. Salaat-ul-Jumma, or the Friday noon prayer is necessarily communal and helped heighten the feeling of solidarity among those disaffected by the recent events and the public's reaction to them.

“I feel scared to wear Islamic clothes at the moment. Everyone gives me dirty looks,” said Mansoor, a 15-year-old muslim from Bangladesh.

His friend, Muhammed, also 15, echoed his views. “Before these latest attacks, I felt British, but now I feel that I have been left out of British society,” he said.

“I feel like running away from this country,” said 15-year-old Juber, who said that he and his friends are being stopped and searched by police at a rate of five or six times a week. “If they [the police] start harrassing mulims for no reason, then why do we want to stay in this country? It has become racist,” he added.

Other teenagers on their way to prayers said they felt all Asians were suffering at the moment, whether they were muslim, sikh or hindu, and that few of the public really understood that only a minority of Muslims engage in terrorism, with the majority condemning it.

“Anyone with brown skin is suffering from these attacks. When I get on a bus, I feel very afraid. People look at me suspiciously and some even shout 'Bin Laden, Bin Laden' at me,” said Siratu.

The Muslim Council of Britain , which has been working with government to improve community relations, expressed concern about developments on Friday: “We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy,” said a spokesman.

“I feel much more harrassed now. The incidents that have happened have not helped the muslim community as a whole. All terrorists are now being classed as muslim,” said Mez, a teenager from Bangladesh. “When the IRA was bombing London, people never said whether they were Catholic or Protestant, so what's the difference? The British government have alienated us,” Mez added.

He went on to argue that, despite all the terrorist attacks which have happened since September 11, the root of the problem had still not been addressed by the public.

“In Iraq and Palestine people are dying on a daily basis and no one is holding silences for them. What is happening in those two countries is the root of the problem of terrorism. Give the Iraqis and the Palestinians support and it will stop,” Mes said.

“America ain't playing fair,” said Rash, another you Bangladeshi said yesterday as his friends nodded their heads in clear agreement. “I'd still rather live here than there,” he finally concluded.


TOPICS: United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: islam; londonattacked; muslims; trop; uk; ukmuslims; unitedkingdom
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To: Cougar66

In Great Britain they stand up, in Spain they run into the fangs of the left.
Peace in Spain? only till Muslims decide for another boost towards expansion and take over.


61 posted on 07/24/2005 6:11:47 PM PDT by hermgem
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To: Cougar66
These writers must be the same people who want to read the story from the vampire's point of view. "That horrible Van Helsing! What a cold-blooded murderer! And that Lucy! Nothing but a tramp, I tell ya."

“I feel scared to wear Islamic clothes at the moment. Everyone gives me dirty looks,” said Mansoor, a 15-year-old muslim from Bangladesh.

Well, Mansoor, that's because you're a member of a gutter religion that routinely murders innocent people. It should come as no surprise that cultural relatives of those innocents would find you ... undesirable. Count it a credit to their forbearance that they don't hang you from a lamp post the way YOUR colleagues do THEIRS.

His friend, Muhammed, also 15, echoed his views. “Before these latest attacks, I felt British, but now I feel that I have been left out of British society,” he said.

Aw, my heart aches for Mansewer and Mo-ham-med. They feel "left out." Tsk tsk. I wonder how "included" the victims of the 7/7 bombings feel. Sudden, senseless death has a tremendous power to isolate too.

62 posted on 07/24/2005 6:14:06 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: Cougar66

The only way to end this terrorism is for Scotland Yard to infilitrate the British mosques, and DETECT, DETAIN, and DEPORT (or IMPRISON) any terrorist sympathesizer (and I suspect there are many.)

Searching people on the street and chasing them through subways is a stop-gap answer to a problem that will only be solved by aggressively prosecuting for TREASON. As many have pointed out, Britain tolerates many extremist Muslim organizations that are outlawed in Pakistan.


63 posted on 07/24/2005 6:15:48 PM PDT by nj26
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To: NickAtNite

So, a bomb threat called in for a London mosque...repeat constantly....

Pissed off ugly looks at pissed off ugly moslems...repeat constantly...

Deport as many as possible...repeat constantly...

If these conditions don't stop the terrorists, then turn up the heat...


64 posted on 07/24/2005 6:24:06 PM PDT by crowman
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To: Plutarch

"If the Muslim "community as a whole" were to cooperate with authorities, turn in the terrororists among them, and stand with the British people as against terror and terrorists they might find much less hostility."

Absolutely. They lose all credibility when they just whine about their "mistreatment" without denouncing and actively pursuing the terrorists.


65 posted on 07/24/2005 6:25:42 PM PDT by hsalaw
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To: Cougar66
“I feel scared to wear Islamic clothes at the moment. Everyone gives me dirty looks,”


66 posted on 07/24/2005 6:26:24 PM PDT by Alouette (Jews don't expel Jews -- Americans don't appease terrorists.)
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To: FreedomCalls

Shouldn't that be Muslim people?

Some Arabs are Christian. Many Muslims are not Arab.


67 posted on 07/24/2005 6:28:07 PM PDT by Alouette (Jews don't expel Jews -- Americans don't appease terrorists.)
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To: Cougar66
“I feel like running away from this country,” said 15-year-old Juber, who said that he and his friends are being stopped and searched by police at a rate of five or six times a week. “If they [the police] start harrassing mulims for no reason, then why do we want to stay in this country? It has become racist,” he added. Because you ruined our confidence with you... we just found out that it is your ultimate "calling" to eradicate infidels... that's way we're starting to eradicate you as well..
68 posted on 07/24/2005 6:29:37 PM PDT by ChristianDefender (If you can't fight with M16/M4.. then use prayer, if not just choose whose side are You!)
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To: SE Mom

"“America ain't playing fair,” said Rash, another you Bangladeshi said yesterday as his friends nodded their heads in clear agreement."

Blahahahaha! It's still America's fault. Rash and his nodding friends should wakeup and realize they are part of the religion of death.


69 posted on 07/24/2005 6:30:02 PM PDT by JeffersonRepublic.com (Visit the Jefferson Republic for a conservative news portal.)
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To: Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)

And may their children's children feel it till their dying days...


70 posted on 07/24/2005 6:32:43 PM PDT by crowman
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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide

I did business once with a Muslim girl, she was very smart and westernized. I figured here was a chance to get some straight talk from someone who was an insider so I pointed out that little ditty 4:89 (I like to use that one)and she went on and on how Islam was a peaceful religion. That confirmed that these people are beyond logic and totally brainwashed. I had another case of a Pakki I worked with, (very professonal type guy) who during the first Gulf War was openly rooting for Saddam. I thought he was kidding and then he went into this whole thing how the USA was evil and we had to be defeated. These people are warped and they are our enemy, all of them...no exceptions. We should all read the Koran to understand how evil this so called religion is and use it against them, most westerners are not aware of what the Koran actually says and think that just the terrorists are evil but the WHOLE religion or cult is inheritly evil. The only ones that seem to be on our side are the governments that we give billions in aid (bribes)to but the people hate the west. The only way to combat them is mass deportation and giving them no quarter.


71 posted on 07/24/2005 6:34:57 PM PDT by muslims=borg (Take the violence out of Islam and whats left ?)
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To: Cougar66
Wonder how they would feel if the government started flying planes into their full up mosques and cutting their heads off on national TV?

I'd bet they'd do more than feel like running.

When they do more than feel that's when we may start winning this war, not before.

72 posted on 07/24/2005 6:35:23 PM PDT by mississippi red-neck (You will never win the war on terrorism by fighting it in Iraq and funding it in the West Bank.)
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To: Cougar66
“If they [the police] start harrassing mulims for no reason, then why do we want to stay in this country? It has become racist,”

Perhaps they will all feel this way. We can hope.

73 posted on 07/24/2005 6:35:33 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: Cougar66

What is often called "racial prejudice" is actually learned statistical awareness. It can keep you and yours alive to be thusly alert.


74 posted on 07/24/2005 6:36:07 PM PDT by kcar (theUNsucks.com)
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To: Cougar66

75 posted on 07/24/2005 6:39:06 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Cougar66

All Muslims may not be terrorists, but they are all America-hating, evil, religious fanatics who condone violence.


76 posted on 07/24/2005 6:42:19 PM PDT by Riptides
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To: Cougar66

They hate the West. Why are they here ?


77 posted on 07/24/2005 6:42:35 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Scratch a Liberal. Uncover a Fascist)
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To: yuleeyahoo

Thanks -- been quite a while since I read it. It sure applies well to Africa and the ME.


78 posted on 07/24/2005 6:45:14 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: nj26

Problem is the infiltrators have to be at least somewhat Muslim, and how can you trust them?


79 posted on 07/24/2005 6:47:31 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: Alouette

Yes indeed.


80 posted on 07/24/2005 6:49:01 PM PDT by expatpat
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